<div><font color="#000000">Greetings Ansteorra!<br><br>Below you will find information from Master Aaron Swiftrunner, Society<br>Seneschal and Vice-President of Operations, regarding a new policy<br>that will soon be put into place. The confidential background checks will
<br>be performed by a third-party vendor at an estimated cost of $10 (each).<br>Specific details from the background check will not be shared or released to<br>anyone not even SCA Corporate by the 3rd party vendor, only a pass/fail
<br>status.</font></div>
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<div><font color="#000000">By no means is this policy complete. I will be forwarding more information<br>to the List as it becomes available. In the meantime, feel free to email me<br>with any questions.<br><br>Julia<br>
Kingdom Seneschal</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>----<br><br><font size="4">Background checks to work with youth<br></font><br>In response to repeated occurences of the SCA having to deal with abuse of<br>minors by SCA participants, risk to our membership from such predatorial
<br>behavior, and legal liabilities if we fail to execute proper due<br>diligence, the SCA will be implementing a background check program to<br>minimize risk of harm to our people and the organization. This program<br>will revolve around conducting--via a properly licensed vendor--background
<br>checks on all persons wishing to serve in a leadership or supervisory<br>position where minors are expected to be taking direction from--or be in<br>the direct control of adults who are not their parent or legal guardian.
<br><br>An example of officials who must receive the background check are: Youth<br>activities officers at all levels, Adults acting as youth marshals for any<br>martial activity, persons organizing/in charge of youth activities for an
<br>event.<br><br>These checks will return a pass/fail status. A pass status will cause the<br>corporate office to issue a card good for two years that must be presented<br>in order to be accepted as an official as described above.
<br><span></span><br>It is expected that this process will be streamlined and simplified as<br>much as possible without invalidating the value of the background checks<br>themselves. The cost of the checks will be billed back to the Kingdoms
<br>whose programs these volunteers are supporting.<br><br>It is worth noting that these measures are less stringent than those being<br>used today by the Boy Scouts of America.<br><br>Further details, to include the actual process and an implement-by date
<br>will accompany the implementing guidelines to be issued after the April<br>Board Meeting.<br><br>Aaron Faheud Swiftrunner of the Stone Keep OL OP<br>c/o George L. Reed<br><br>Society Seneschal and Vice President of Operations
<br>SCA, Inc.<br> </font></div>